baroque estrangement
SPATIAL INVESTIGATION
THIRD YEAR STUDIO—TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
FALL 2017
INSTRUCTOR: VAHID VAHDAT ZAD
THIRD YEAR STUDIO—TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
FALL 2017
INSTRUCTOR: VAHID VAHDAT ZAD
This project questions what defines space and how space defines human experience. The object that defines this space is derived from an investigation into the melancholy experience and the defamiliarization of baroque space.
Robert Burton argues that melancholy is a more true version of one’s self because it is the unfolding of a full range of human emotions without regards to reason. Melancholy operates from the soul. Because of the lack of reason, melancholy suspends reality and fantasy and defeats both time and space. Burton describes melancholy as a “disjunction between self and the world.” Similar to Burton’s understanding of melancholy is Gilles Deleuze’s understanding of the baroque fold. Deleuze defines the fold as the collapse of subject to object distinction. All things are composed of infinitely and intricately folded matter. Progression is the unfolding of that matter and digression is further folding of matter onto itself.
In designing a melancholic space, strategies of the baroque fold were employed in order to formally generate a space of subject/object disjunction. Baroque spaces are typically circulated around moments of poche but when the poche is unfolded, unfamiliar space is found within familiar objects. Introducing a corner condition further confuses what is plan, what is section and how these elements are understood spatially when the roles are reversed. The ornamental object is set in an infinitely empty space. This contrast of hyper articulation to none at all toys with the concept of horror vacui which literally translates to “a fear of empty space.” This adds a sense of safeness within the object to contain the flâneur within the melancholy that allows the expression of the fold. Through unfolding the layers of this classical order, we arrive at an estranged form with unresolved antinomies and tensions. The object transgresses to a state that is not solid in baroque nor gothic, but operates in its own order.
Robert Burton argues that melancholy is a more true version of one’s self because it is the unfolding of a full range of human emotions without regards to reason. Melancholy operates from the soul. Because of the lack of reason, melancholy suspends reality and fantasy and defeats both time and space. Burton describes melancholy as a “disjunction between self and the world.” Similar to Burton’s understanding of melancholy is Gilles Deleuze’s understanding of the baroque fold. Deleuze defines the fold as the collapse of subject to object distinction. All things are composed of infinitely and intricately folded matter. Progression is the unfolding of that matter and digression is further folding of matter onto itself.
In designing a melancholic space, strategies of the baroque fold were employed in order to formally generate a space of subject/object disjunction. Baroque spaces are typically circulated around moments of poche but when the poche is unfolded, unfamiliar space is found within familiar objects. Introducing a corner condition further confuses what is plan, what is section and how these elements are understood spatially when the roles are reversed. The ornamental object is set in an infinitely empty space. This contrast of hyper articulation to none at all toys with the concept of horror vacui which literally translates to “a fear of empty space.” This adds a sense of safeness within the object to contain the flâneur within the melancholy that allows the expression of the fold. Through unfolding the layers of this classical order, we arrive at an estranged form with unresolved antinomies and tensions. The object transgresses to a state that is not solid in baroque nor gothic, but operates in its own order.
